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Female Genital Mutilation in Kirkuk –
outlook for a campaign
28.12.2010
By Falah Muradkhan Shakaram, WADI Project
Coordinator in Iraq |
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December 28, 2010
Preliminary data from a study conducted by PANA in
cooperation with WADI indicates that 40 % of the
women in Kirkuk have been mutilated.
By Falah Muradkhan Shakaram, WADI Project
Coordinator in Iraq
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) has become one of
the main focuses of our work over the last few
years. During this period, we have been able to
organize the most comprehensive campaign in
Iraqi-Kurdistan against this practice and to raise
public awareness about the harms and dangers of the
practice as well as its consequences. The scale of
our activities has been broad and we have been able
to make the far-reaching achievement of breaking the
taboo of shame and silence attached to FGM, so that
nowadays many organizations and governmental bodies
as well as the media are working on the issue.
This work became more prominent especially after the
publication of a Human Rights Watch special report
on FGM in June 2010.
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File photo |
Consequently, on the
25th of November Dr. Barham Salih, President of the
Council of Ministers announced in a public
governmental address his opposition to the practice
of FGM. On the 11th of December the results of the
official study of FGM in Kurdistan, conducted by a
group of physicians, were made public. The study
involved 5112 women, 41% of whom were circumcised.
However, the only scientifically conducted study in
the region – a study conducted by our organization
and published in 2010 – indicated that from a total
of 1408 women in Sulaimaniyah, Hawler [Erbil] and
Germyan 72.2% were circumcised; 57% of the women
less than 20 years old and 95.7% of the women over
the age of 58 were cut.
FGM in other regions of
Iraq
During our work on FGM we heard often and from many
people that this practice is not an established
Kurdish tradition but instead has been adopted from
the Arabic “Islamic” traditions. This type of
statement and reasoning was always suspicious,
although we are convinced that no one in Kurdistan
would deny such explanations. However, when the
majority of the citizens in other regions of Iraq
are faced with the question of the origins of FGM
they deny such an association between Islamic
traditions and the practice. Although the principal
factors that underlie FGM are also present in the
other parts of Iraq – namely, religion (the Shafi’
school), patriarchal societal culture and tribal
traditions – there is no evidence that the practice
of FGM is prominent in these areas. In the light of
our experiences from Kurdistan, it may be the case
that, rather than not being practiced, FGM in other
regions of Iraq is being practiced but still hidden.
The taboo of silence has not yet been broken so that
the problem could become a publicly discussed issue,
as it is being discussed in Kurdistan.
FGM in Kirkuk
FGM is a grave violation of human rights and it is
the responsibility of the Central Government to work
on prohibiting and preventing it. Clearly the
political climate between the central government and
the Kurdistan regional government did now allow the
allocation of a great deal of attention or
responsibility to the issue of FGM. We, therefore,
considered it valuable to collect data from other
areas of Iraq about FGM, and in the coming years we
will make Kirkuk one of the focuses of our
activities and sample it as a window to the other
parts of Iraq. In doing this we will be following
the maxime “Kirkuk is a miniature Iraq”, since it
includes all the ethnic groups, religions, cultures
and unfortunately all the political complexities and
struggles which are tangible in this governorate.
Until now FGM is basically considered a Kurdish
problem, therefore The Kurdish Regional Government
(KRG) and the Kurdish Parliament were requested to
deal with it. But the significant numbers of FGM
found in Diyala and Kirkuk are telling another
story. Both governorates are not part of the KRG
region. Therefore the Central Government in Baghdad
and the Iraqi Parliament are responsible to deal
with the issue. Thus we are planning to address both
the Parliament and the relevant Ministries in
Baghdad in order to raise awareness and lobby for a
legal ban of FGM throughout the country.
As a preliminary survey to identify the prevalence
of FGM in Kirkuk, we formulated a plan – in
cooperation with PANA organization, an independent
and active organization involved with combating
violence against women in Kirkuk – to conduct 36
public meetings for Kirkuki women and young girls,
12 of which will be held in the city centre and 24
in the surrounding cities and villages allocated on
the basis of radial distance from the city.
In these meetings we were able to gather 741 women
whom were able to question about the issue of FGM. A
pilot study was conducted by asking the participants
about their personal and family experience of FGM.
From a total of 1807 women 738 were mutilated (41%).
From the same study it became clear that the
prevalence of FGM among the Sunni Shafi’ Kurds and
Arabs was higher than that among the Shiites, and
the highest prevalence in an ethnic group was among
the Kurds. However, the majority of the participants
were citizens from the Kurdish districts and areas,
and because of the poor security situation of some
majority-Arab areas we were unable to conduct
meetings as we would have otherwise wanted to. We
hope that in our future programs we are able to
involve Arabic and Turkmen organizations in order to
complete the survey.
Rahimawa is the most famous Kurdish quarter in
Kirkuk and has a remarkably high record of FGM.
People in this district still consider FGM as an
Islamic Sunna and have markedly little information
about the harms of the practice. From a total of 88
women from the quarter, 58 of them were circumcised
(65.9%). For the sake of comparison the quarter of
“Hey Al-Mutanaza”, an Arab area, was surveyed and
from a total of 56 women and girls only 10 were cut
(17.8%), and no woman or girl was cut from a total
of 43 women living in the Turkmen-quarter of Yayjy
Awcheshly. It suggests that among this ethnic
minority FGM is not widespread – a very encouraging
fact. However, in the city of Dubz, a place where
Kurdish, Turkmen and Arabs live, 66% of those
questioned were circumcised (33 out of 50
participants).
Clearly, this preliminary study is not without
limitations, but it signals that FGM is spread
beyond the borders of the Kurdistan region. We hope
that through the results of this study we will be
able to put pressure on the central government, to
take the issue of FGM more seriously. We will
designate Kirkuk and other areas of Iraq as the
focus of our activities for the coming years in
combating FGM, and for this purpose many
international organizations have expressed their
interest in cooperating with us and are willing to
support our activities.
The detailed data on the surveyed areas and observed
prevalence of FGM is found below
Data from the study of PANA Centre in Kirkuk:
|
Meeting No. |
Area |
No. of Participants |
Ethnic Origin |
No. of Female Family Members, inclusive
of participant |
Circumcision |
No. of women who previously heard the bad
consequences of the practice |
|
Done |
Not Done |
|
1 |
Kurdistan |
18 |
Kurdish |
53 |
18 |
35 |
14 |
|
2 |
Penja Ali |
22 |
Kurdish |
83 |
31 |
52 |
17 |
|
3 |
Rahim Awa |
32 |
Kurdish |
88 |
56 |
32 |
18 |
|
4 |
Hei Almuntezeh |
20 |
Arabic |
56 |
10 |
46 |
18 |
|
5 |
Muhafeze |
20 |
mixed Arab and Turkmen |
47 |
1 |
46 |
11 |
|
6 |
Newroz |
19 |
Kurdish |
59 |
36 |
23 |
19 |
|
7 |
Prde/Selahie |
18 |
Kurdish |
49 |
18 |
31 |
14 |
|
8 |
Prde/Briaty Village |
20 |
Mixed Kurdish and Turkmen |
52 |
20 |
32 |
12 |
|
9 |
Prde/Qeli Bashe Village |
18 |
Kurdish |
63 |
38 |
25 |
14 |
|
10 |
Dibz/ Chkhmaxe Village |
23 |
Kurdish |
52 |
25 |
27 |
16 |
|
11 |
Dibz/Qirder |
18 |
mixed Arab, Kurd, Turkmen |
50 |
33 |
17 |
17 |
|
12 |
Dibz/Heware Berze |
22 |
mixed Arab, Kurd, Turkmen |
66 |
20 |
46 |
19 |
|
13 |
Laylan/Newroz |
22 |
Kurdish |
55 |
11 |
44 |
16 |
|
14 |
Laylan/Serjil |
19 |
Kurdish |
44 |
12 |
32 |
14 |
|
15 |
Serchnar |
25 |
Kurdish |
75 |
27 |
48 |
19 |
|
16 |
Bagler |
22 |
Kurdish |
42 |
15 |
27 |
18 |
|
17 |
Kirkuk/Chublige Village |
30 |
Kurdish |
74 |
44 |
30 |
19 |
|
18 |
Sa7et Omal |
18 |
Kurdish |
42 |
15 |
27 |
15 |
|
19 |
Tepe |
23 |
Arabic and Kurdish |
51 |
12 |
39 |
19 |
|
20 |
Qadsie 2 |
24 |
mixed Arab, Kurd, Turkmen |
42 |
7 |
35 |
13 |
|
21 |
Qadsie 1 |
20 |
mixed Arab, Kurd, Turkmen |
52 |
1 |
51 |
11 |
|
22 |
Qerehenjer/ Chimani Gewre Village |
24 |
Kurdish |
49 |
25 |
24 |
17 |
|
23 |
Qerehenjeer/ Chimeni Seru Village |
19 |
Kurdish |
40 |
20 |
20 |
10 |
|
24 |
Qerehenjeer/ Chimeni Shehid Kakil |
17 |
Kurdish |
29 |
25 |
4 |
12 |
|
25 |
Daquq/Mame Rishe |
20 |
mixed of Kurdish and Arab |
60 |
7 |
53 |
17 |
|
26 |
Daquq/Dur Alashair |
17 |
mixed of Kurdish and Arab |
38 |
12 |
26 |
10 |
|
27 |
Yaych/Tobzawe |
17 |
Kurdish |
38 |
23 |
15 |
7 |
|
28 |
Yaychi/Taze |
20 |
Kurdish |
27 |
10 |
17 |
4 |
|
29 |
Yaychi/ Auchishli |
24 |
Turkmen |
43 |
0 |
43 |
11 |
|
30 |
Prde/ Esari Gewre |
19 |
Kurdish |
42 |
27 |
15 |
12 |
|
31 |
Shwan /Ashti |
18 |
Kurdish |
44 |
25 |
19 |
15 |
|
32 |
Shwan/Bextirai |
20 |
Kurdish |
40 |
31 |
9 |
17 |
|
33 |
Qerehenjeer/Shex Jibri Seru |
17 |
Kurdish |
42 |
16 |
26 |
11 |
|
34 |
Qerehenjeer/Shex Jibri Xuaru |
17 |
Kurdish |
47 |
28 |
19 |
10 |
|
35 |
Qerehenjeer/ Bashblax |
21 |
Kurdish |
38 |
24 |
14 |
15 |
|
36 |
Qerehenjeer |
18 |
Kurdish |
35 |
15 |
20 |
8 |
|
Total Numbers |
741 |
|
1807 |
738 |
1069 |
509 |
(This article was first published in Kurdish in
Awene newspaper)
http://www.awene.com/Direje.aspx?Babet=Hemereng&jimare=1409
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